Cancellation vs checkout date change during stay

1

I’ve had a guest for about two weeks. They first booked for about 10 days, once that ran out, they extended another 10 days. Half the way into the extension, they decided to move out as they found an apartment to rent long term. It was easy for them to do that because, as I am relatively new to AirBnB, my cancellation policy was flexible (but I changed it as a result to be reflected for future reservations).

I had a similar situation before when a guest wanted to check out a day before the originally booked date. Back then, AirBnB asked me to approve their change of reservation and I did.

But now it is different. I received not a change of reservation dates notice but a cancellation notice. The cancellation notice was very vague. It didn’t say when it would be effective as of, only issued a future transaction based on which I can calculate. What is also rather mysterious is that the guest disappeared from my calendar. Previous guests can be seen on my calendar even months ago but this person just disappeared despite having stayed for a total of about 15 days. I feel a little perplexed.

There has never been any issue with the guest. They never complained of anything and vice versa.

My question is, could it be that they fabricated a bogus complaint to AirBnB due to which they erased any trace of our host-guest relationship? Will my rankings suffer? The situation is a bit kafkaesque due to the mystery surrounding the transaction.

2

It has been heavily debated here, but many believe that you get a boost in your ranking if a guest cancels. I fall in this camp as I have had it confirmed by an Airbnb customer service representative and when a guest cancels I almost always get a replacement guest at lightning speed.

It seems odd that they were removed completely from your calendar. If I were you I would look at my Account Page to make sure that only the portion of the stay after they left was cancelled as opposed to the entire stay being cancelled.

3

They are refunding the guest only for the time they didn’t stay, after the cancellation. But they are cancelling the WHOLE STAY. So it looks like they were never here.